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Tuesday, July 8, 2014

The Fragrant Memory Of My Childhood-A Blessing

They say memories associated with fragrance are very strong and i am not saying this just as a biologists who has read numerous research papers on the topic but from my personal experience. Every memory of my childhood somehow gears me back to holidays when I looked forward to meeting my grandparents who lived in our ancestral village called Simalgam which on the map is near the famous city of diamonds- Surat, in Gujarat. The mornings began early, too early, as early as my nights begin now at 5:00Am and my grandmother was the first to wake up. Though as soon as she woke up, we couldnt sleep as she would listen to bhajans at full volume on her cassette player (CD's weren't discovered yet). Yet I loved those mornings. Particularly difficult one was the Thursday morning though where grandmother would want 1000 freshly plucked tulsi paan out of her garden (now imagine how many tulsi plants we had, everywhere you lay your eyes, you will see one).

(never had a camera in my time there, so posting this painting as a depiction of the typical village ours was)

She had her own miniature garden at the back of a single storey home that ran like a row. I watered all the tulsi plants then. as soon as the water hit the soil there is a smell, ofcourse I later learnt being a student of Microbiology that it is Geosmin produced by Actinobacteria. So this smell with the smell of tulsi is amazing, try watering a tulsi plant once and experience it for your self. I believe Godrej can try perfecting this smell and it can be produced by a biochemist. Hire me if you want :P

So the ultimate fragrance that I have experienced is still ahead on the road, as me and Grandma walked a kilometer to reach the temple of our kuldevi where precisely 1000 tulsi leaves were offered. On the tusli leaves was sprinkled Gangajal (now my Grandmom is not someone who will buy Ganga jal from any shop and will beleiev it, she would catch hold of people who would go there and ensure they get it for her. People loved her exquisite cooking and advise and were wise to never forget it).

The smell of wet earth...

My grandmother is a Wikipedia of all the Shloka's, stories and every scripture ever written on Hinduism (She did an M.A. in Sanskrit in that era where women were born to be married, ah i wish I had even 1% of talent). So Ba (as I call her) would recite all the shlokas, light the aggarbatti, dhoop and diya and then after the paath, the aarti would begin. Post which we were taught to water the nearby banyan tree. Now this fragrance of tuli+gangajal+ parched earth+dhoop+flowers which emanated from the temple every Sunday morning is this fragrance I would love to start every morning with. I would then feel the blessings of my Ba and God right on my head as I begin on my journey each day to make my mark in the world. I wish Godrej with its experimental initiatives can make it come true.

Check all the unique and exclusive fragrances from Godrej here: http://www.godrejaer.com/.
This post is for #InspireAFragrance contest by #Indiblogger and #Godrejaer